April 28, 2007

Baby Development

Watching a baby develop is one of life’s great experiences. It is not so much the thrill of seeing the baby recapitulate your own development—it is quite possible that you, as a baby, developed very differently than your own baby does—but rather the fascination of seeing how the experiential pieces get put together at all.

The number and complexity of things that a baby teaches itself in the course of a day is astounding. That it does so even while its own senses and feedback systems are themselves in a state of flux is that much more incredible. It is also amazing how progress appears to come in leaps. I think this effect is only a matter of appearances though: the baby is constantly learning and every once in a while multiple avenues of progress converge to produce a “major developmental milestone” and “suddenly” your baby is crawling, or standing up, or reprogramming your iPod….